Girls: Broken Dreams Club EP

The new EP from San Francisco’s Girls’ may be titled Broken Dreams Club, but the one thing breaking all over this record is hearts. Little girl hearts, grown man hearts—none are spared here, but frontman Christopher Owens and bassist/producer Chet “JR” White have crammed these six songs so completely with hooks and charm, you’d be wont to forget their sad theme if the lyrics weren’t so darn affecting. “He’ll never know about the time that you cried in the movies / He’ll never know about the time that you cried to the music,” Owens croons over the swaying, horn-laced ‘50s slow-dance of “Thee Oh So Protected One,” capturing the essence of unrequited teenage love better than a year’s worth of tear-stained diary pages. Later, over the weeping pedal steel of the title track, he delivers the wrenching, “Even though I’m close to you / I can’t be what you need / ‘cause you’re just as lost as me.” There’s a lot to love here, from the catching, understated rock of “Alright” to the fuzzy psych of closer “Carolina.” Broken Deams Club may be littered with broken hearts, but this Girls’ EP is much more likely to steal yours than to shatter it.